ABSTRACT
In considering how the embodiment in literature of the development of the life of the mind has illuminated the task of psychoanalysis, their congruent goals become apparent: to explore the process whereby truthful emotional experiences evolve and to participate in the growth of the mind. The congruence of direction between literature and psychoanalysis resides in their both being based in this embracing of emotion as lying at the heart of meaning, symbol formation being the entree to thinking about meaning. The transference, at the level of the infant/breast relationship, is the vehicle for all fundamental change through psychoanalysis. The "thinking" breast becomes the unconscious "legislator" of the baby's world. The symbolizing processes of the artist and his or her relationship with the community involve similar reciprocity to the relationships alike between mother and baby and between therapist and patient. W. R. Bion's theory is that symbol formation is initially a function of the internal object rather than of the self.
